Lipid based fillings are used in a variety of food products, especially in the field of confectionery and bakery applications. Examples are lipid based fillings, include sweet or savory filings, such as for sandwich biscuits, for wafer products, for crackers or for cakes. However such lipid based fillings tend to have a nutritional profile high in total fat and high in saturated fats due to the solid state of the fat that is necessary in order to provide the desired textural properties.
The type of fat used in those lipid based fillings governs the texture as well as the organoleptic properties of the product. For instance, a fat for a sandwich biscuit filling must provide a sufficiently firm texture to ensure shape stability of the product and to avoid squeezing out the filling upon handling. It should melt in the mouth and it should only have minor fractions of solids that melt above the blood temperature to yield a creamy mouth feel.
The hardness and the melting profile of a fat are linked to its degree of saturation. Highly saturated fats are usually solid at ambient conditions, e.g. palm fat or any hydrogenated vegetable fat. Low levels of saturation yield a liquid product at ambient conditions, e.g. a sunflower oil.
In order to impart the required textural and sensorial properties to lipid-based fillings, high SFA (saturated fatty acids), solid type fats are used for lipid based fillings. Commonly used fats for lipid based fillings are hydrogenated coconut and palm kernel oils. Examples of typical conventional cream fillings include those described, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,244,536, U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,991, or U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,812, as well as in the chapter entitled ‘Sweet and savoury biscuit creams’, in D. Manley, Biscuit, cracker and cookie recipes for the food industry, Woodhead Publishing Limited, 2001, p. 137ff.
However, fats containing high amounts of saturated fatty acids (SFA) are known to have negative health benefits and are linked to an enhanced risk for cardiovascular diseases. In the recent years, this has led to an increasingly negative consumer perception of saturates.
Hydrogenation of oil is a commonly used technique to obtain solid type fats from liquid oils. Besides the resulting high SFA content, the presence of trans fatty acids in partially hydrogenated fats has become a severe health issue. Trans fatty acids are associated with cardiovascular diseases as well as with the risk of getting diabetes and some types of cancer such as breast cancer.
Hence it would be desirable to reduce or replace high SFA solid-type fats, or hydrogenated fats containing significant levels of trans fatty acids, by low SFA liquid oils. However, for persons skilled in the art it is evident that in filling compositions it is not possible to use a liquid oil instead of a solid fat. A difficulty in just increasing/replacing the solid fats with low SFA liquid oils is that this impacts on the physical properties such as the taste, texture and the overall appearance of the filling compositions (organoleptic parameters). Also the replacement of solid fats by low SFA liquid oil in the recipe can have a negative impact on processability, such as giving a much softer and stickier filling composition, which can be unprocessable.
US2002/0106426 A1 describes a reduced saturated fat lipid based filling which comprises (a) at least about 20% lipid, wherein said lipid is selected from the group consisting of digestible lipid, non-digestible lipid, and mixtures thereof; and (b) from about 0.5% to about 35% crystallizing lipid. According to US2002/0106426, the fillings described therein can have about 20% less, or even 30% less saturated fat than comparable standard full fat saturated fat lipid based fillings.
US2008/0193621 A1 relates to a cream filler composition which is reported to be free of partially hydrogenated fats and has a saturated fat fraction representing not more than 5% w/w of the total lipid fraction. The composition contains a lipid fraction, a powder sweetener composition, and a wheat gluten fraction having an increased gliadin content.
WO2009/013473 discloses a confectionery composition that is relatively high in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Besides the non-lipid confectionery additives such as sugar cocoa powder, milk powder, yoghurt powder, flavouring, and emulsifier the composition contains a SFA reduced fat blend.
In all of the above the SFA reduction is achieved by a low SFA fat blend containing a crystallizing or structuring agent such as a hydrogenated fat, a highly saturated fat fraction or certain proteins. Furthermore low SFA fat blends tend to compromise the solid texture of a fat and the SFA reduction potential is limited. Moreover, hydrogenated fats have a very negative consumer perception as described above.
The consumer is not willing to compromise on the organoleptic properties of filling compositions, in order to reduce consumption of SFA. Taste, texture and overall appearance are such organoleptic properties.
Obviously, industrial line efficiency is important in the food industry. This includes handling and processing of raw materials, processing of the filling, preparation of composite products comprising the filing, packaging and later storing, in warehouses, on the shelf or at home.
Accordingly there is an ongoing need to provide low SFA lipid based filing compositions, having good organoleptic properties.
It is an object of the present invention to provide lipid based filling compositions that have a low SFA content.
It would be advantageous to provide lipid based filing compositions that are low in SFA, and that may be easily industrialised at a reasonable cost without compromising the organoleptic parameters.